Today’s global organizations must navigate a “new world of work” that has turned traditional assumptions about talent management upside down.
In this new world, the barriers between work and life have been all but eliminated.
Talent is in high demand, and many organizations cannot keep up.
Millennials will soon make up 50 percent of the workforce—and they have different values than previous generations do.
From a macroeconomic perspective, the world has entered a period of stronger economic growth.
10 human capital trends for 2015
Percentage of respondents who say the topic is “important” or “urgent”
1. Culture and engagement – Create meaningful work (87%)
2. Leadership – Develop global leaders at all levels (86)
3. L&D – Reinvent the learning experience (86)
4. On-demand workforce – Engage all workers (80)
5. Reskilling HR – Align HR with business goals (80)
6. Performance management – Shift from evaluators to coaches (75)
7. People analytics – Need long-term commitment (75)
8. Simplifying work – Focus on what matters (71)
9. Machines as talent – Look for opportunities (57)
10. People data – Leverage inside and outside data (52)
Our research shows that, in 2014, it will be hard to keep good people. “Responsible companies” had much higher levels of engagement and retention, customer service, and long-term profitability. People want to work for organizations that fulfill a larger mission.
People want to work for organizations that are inspiring to work for – and offer a greater sense of purpose (this is even more true for Millennials – which will be 75% of our workforce in 10 years.)
People also desire flexibility or control/autonomy over workload, time and schedules, as well as opportunities to grow and contribute. All of this (plus more – inclusion, workspace design, etc.) is part of a holistic work environment.
68% of women without children would rather have more free time than make more money — even more than those with children (62%). More magazine – 2013, “Women in Workplace Study,” http://www.more.com/flexible-job-survey
One of every five employees cares for elderly parents, a number that could increase to almost half of the workforce over the next several years. http://whenworkworks.org/research/downloads/FlexAtAGlance.pdf
40% of professional men work more than 50 hours per week. Of these, 80% would like to work fewer hours. We have the “overwhelmed employee” problem to address.Center for American Progress. August, 2013http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2012/08/pdf/flexibility_factsheet.pdf
Transition: So let’s talk about this a bit more on the next slide
[NOTE: Slide builds]
Main Point: PM is changing to make it more collaborative, dynamic, and integrated.
Transition: But this is not easy, which we can see when we look at the relative levels of maturity of organizations.
Purpose:
Have a formal discussion on employees’ progress on goals
Ensure goal alignment and make any adjustments
Have a two-way discussion on strengths and opportunities
Identify learning opportunities in the short-term
Gain insight on greater career goals
Frequency:
At least twice per year, in addition to the annual appraisal
Results:
Nearly three quarters of employees feel they receive the right amount of performance feedback from their managers
Over two thirds of employees feel they have clear expectations and that their manager provides support that helps them to meet objectives
Over three quarters of employees receive the appropriate amount of recognition from their manager for a job well done
A Check-In is separate from EA’s Focal Review (annual performance review) and can be requested by either a manager or an employee at any time during the year. When Check-Ins were first introduced two years ago, they were requested once per year. As EA’s business model has shifted, so has the desire for real-time, quality feedback. Today, EA encourages at least two Check-Ins per year, thus ensuring that all employees receive feedback from managers at least three times per year (the two Check-Ins plus the annual review).
EA promotes this greater frequency of Check-Ins because it wants to create a feedback culture that will lead to employees to taking greater risks and being more innovative.
In addition, leaders at EA hope the process motivates employees to raise the bar of their own performance and be more engaged in their work. Finally, EA leaders believe these more frequent conversations demonstrate that managers care about their employees.
(c) Bersin and Associates
[NOTE: Slide builds]
Main Point: We analyzed the voluntary turnover rate compared to the effectiveness of the organization’s recognition program at improving engagement. We found that in organizations that rated their recognition program highly, they tended to have lower turnover. This finding makes sense in light of the fact that U.S. Department of Labor research found 64 percent of working Americans leave their jobs because they do not feel appreciated. Unfortunately, though, most organizations’ cultures are not as supportive of recognition as we might hope. Our research found that only 17% of respondents indicated their organization’s culture was extremely supportive of employee recognition – and half of respondents said their organization’s culture was not supportive or only somewhat supportive.
Transition: So what should leaders do to increase recognition within the organization?
The findings
Organizations are simplifying work in response to employees feeling overwhelmed by increasing organizational complexity, growing information overload, and a highly stressful 24/7 work environment.
More than 7 out of 10 organizations rated the need to simplify work highly, with more than 25 percent citing it as an urgent problem. Ten percent of companies have a simplification program; 22 percent are working on one.
Why is this?
Technology, globalization, and compliance needs continuously add complexity to work. Left unaddressed, this leads to an organizational environment that damages employee engagement, lowers quality, and reduces innovation and customer service.
Some steps are already being taken. Some companies are waking up to the need to “simplify the work environment,” reduce workloads, eliminate steps, and engineer simpler applications that don’t require lots of training or time to use.
What’s needed?
In 2015, successful companies will continue to take steps to simplify work, reduce administrative burdens, and streamline complex processes.
Business and HR leaders should put “simplification” on the agenda for 2015 and focus on individual, organizational, and work-specific programs that reduce complexity and help people focus on what really matters. Taking these steps will ultimately help drive engagement and productivity.
Kelly Services offers outsourcing and consulting services, including recruitment, HR management and vendor management to companies worldwide. The organization, which had $5.5 billion in revenue in 2012, has about 1,100 permanent employees at its headquarters in Troy, Michigan, and about 6,800 more in branch offices worldwide. The company provides temporary employment to about 560,000 people each year.
In 2008, the HR leadership team at Kelly decided it was time to take a fresh approach to performance management. There was a general sense that the old way was not working, but it was unclear exactly what lay at the root of the problem.
Kelly assembled a team to set a new course – purposely without a vision for what that course would look like. Open-mindedness and candor were important elements of what participants recall as a deeply introspective process. A key element of the process was a focus on Kelly’s fundamental beliefs and assumptions about its people. Specifically, Kelly looked at how policies and procedures can either communicate or undermine the core beliefs and expectations that leaders have regarding employees. For example, too much emphasis on monitoring behavior through tools like time clocks and activity logs can suggest distrust or an expectation that employees work only for their paychecks, not out of integrity or a desire to do a good job. Kelly took a step back to identify what managers and leaders believed about employees, then let those beliefs guide subsequent decisions.
Leaders at Kelly ultimately decided that past approaches to performance management had been paternalistic, rather than collegial. In examining their core beliefs about employees, leaders concluded that such a tone did not accurately reflect their expectations of employees. The leaders believed most employees cared about their jobs and wanted to do them well.
It followed that the aim of performance management should be to help employees follow through on their natural motivation. But conversation after conversation revealed that many regarded the performance management score as a hindrance.
Kelly could have renewed efforts to standardize the scoring process, but that began to seem like a case of the tail wagging the dog. What leaders and employees primarily wanted wasn’t more consistent scoring; it was more fruitful performance-management conversations.
In the end, the decision came down to what the scores represented for Kelly and its workforce. Rightly or wrongly, the scores had become emblematic of a management-driven, red-tape-laden approach to performance management. So, Kelly decided to abolish them. In one sense, abandoning scores was a tactical move. But in perhaps an even more important sense, the change was strategic and symbolic – an opportunity to redirect thinking across the enterprise.
Since Kelly has abolished performance scores, they have seen higher levels of engagement from employees and received reports that performance conversations are much more honest and effective.